


Birthday

by Donotquestionme



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Genre: A bit AU, Canon Pairing, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-10 20:52:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1164393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Donotquestionme/pseuds/Donotquestionme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Betty throws a surprise birthday party for Hulk but she's not the only one with a surprise for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s the fanfic I’ve been working on for a while. It’s set it a bit of an AU future version of the MCU with dashes from the comics.
> 
> The basic setting is that Bruce and Hulk have reconciled a lot of their differences and now share control pretty evenly. Hulk is fully articulate and of above average intelligence. They’re still on The Avengers, which is now a more permanent team.
> 
> They've also reconnected with Betty, whom they now share a home with. They've all sorted out most of the “You’re the same person, I can be in love with both of you and vice versa” emotional stuff and their relationship is fairly stable.

Bruce Called me and I came. I hadn't been awake, but I could tell by the state of his mind and body that Bruce was in no danger. He had been keeping me in the dark every time I wasn't in control for about a week now. I suppose everyone's due some private time. It didn't strike me as out of the ordinary. What I saw when I came to was, however, rather out of the ordinary.

Betty was standing next to the dining room table of our shared home, beaming. The table was adorned with a colorful tablecloth and covered with food, drink, and multiple, brightly wrapped boxes. From the ceiling hung streamers, balloons, and a banner reading "Happy Birthday!" in large letters.

"Surprise!" Betty exclaimed. "Happy Birthday!"

I narrowed my eyes, confused, as if waiting for the punch line of this bad joke.  
"S'not my birthday." I scoffed.

Betty walked up to me, still grinning.  
"Correction." she said, poking me in the chest. "It's not _Bruce's_ birthday."

I stared at her, confused. I didn't follow. 

"Today is the anniversary of the day of our Gamma experiment and Bruce's 'accident'." she continued, unfazed, making air quotes around the word "accident". "The first day of your life. Well--the first official day. I mean--You know what I mean." she chuckled and made a flippant hand gesture.

A dark green flush rose to my cheeks and I felt my face grow hot. It was stupid. How could she even suggest , even as a joke, celebrating a day all of us had just wanted to forget. Me especially. I wasn't a person. I wasn't 'born'. I didn't have birthdays and I _certainly_ didn't have parties.

"I don't--" I started harshly, but she cut me off.

"Shh. Don't start." Betty cooed. "This is your day and you're going to enjoy it whether you like it or not!" she gave me a sly smile before dragging me by the hand to a chair. I sat down reluctantly. I was thankful that she hadn't invited anyone else to "celebrate". I was embarrassed enough alone. She knew me well like that. She had prepared Turkey, corn on the cob, rolls, and other things I could eat mostly without fumbling with silverware. She knew me well like that. The meal must have taken a lot of work. I felt I should thank her but instead sat awkwardly in silence, attempting to sulk.

"Did Tony put you up to this?" I finally grumbled. It seemed like something he would do. _Let's throw a party for the monster. What a grand laugh that will be._ I could only imagine the smug grin on his face right now as he thought of me sitting awkwardly, surrounded by streamers and balloons, no doubt chuckling at my expense. I'd have to have a word with him when this fiasco was over with.

"It was Bruce idea, actually." Betty replied. unfazed by my harsh tone. "But I did most of the organizing. I wanted to make sure it was a surprise." She winked.

Bruce? Now that was a surprise. It wasn't beyond him to throw a prank or two my way but going so far to make me uncomfortable wasn't really his style. 

Despite my best efforts, Betty managed to wrangle me into a conversation and after a while we were chatting like normal and I started to feel cheery despite myself. 

After the meal, Betty stood up and exclaimed "Time for presents!"

I groaned audibly, rolling my eyes.

"Oh come on." Betty said. "Do this for me?" she gave me a pleading look that she knew I couldn't refuse. She knew me a bit too well like that. 

"Fine." I sighed.

Betty beamed and said "Card first.", handing me a large envelope. 

Inside was an oversized, bright purple card that said "Hope your birthday is SMASHING!" in bold green letters. The "smashing" was written in glitter. Something told me that Tony Stark had had a hand in designing this card. A Stark logo in the bottom corner confirmed my suspicions. Inside were the signatures of the whole team. Tony's signature was largest of all and was in the very center of the card. It said "Happy B-day, Big Guy! from Tony Stark and Pepper Potts". Second largest was Thor's which read "WARMEST REGARDS ON YOU DAY OF BIRTH FRIEND HULK - THOR ODINSON." below those were 3 more reasonably sized notes reading "Happy Birthday, Soldier - Steve" , "Best Wishes - N.R." and "Have a good one, Golly Green!" the last of was signed only with a small doodle of an arrow but it wasn't exactly hard to guess who it was from.

My face grew hot again. He'd somehow managed to get the whole team on this. Best wishes scrawled onto a piece of cardstock like it was the most normal thing in the world. It was stupid. I felt like everyone was in on some big joke. All laughing at me. Then I glanced at the very bottom of the card. Written in tiny, neat letters in the bottom corner was:

"I'm sorry.  
Thank you.  
\- Bruce"

The words took me aback. Four little words. They seemed sincere. It occurred to me then that they might just be sincere . That everyone really felt like I could just...have a birthday party like a normal human being. Like my creation was something worth celebrating.

Now _that_ was stupid.

I tried not to think about it too much and reached to one of the boxes.

"Ah-ah!" Betty chirped, slapping my hand away. "That one is from Bruce. He specifically instructed me to tell you to open that one later. It's a surprise." she winked again.

I considered opening it anyway, to spite Bruce, but it occurred to me that he might have been anticipating that and had left something embarrassing in that box. Of course, he also could have anticipated me thinking this as well. Trying to outthink Bruce was a fool's errand. I decided it was probably safer to leave the present alone for now. 

I groaned exaggeratedly and Betty pushed my arm playfully. I pushed her back, as gently as I could. We'd been together like this for a while now, but I was still terrified of how fragile she was. She then handed me a large box with an enormous and overly intricate bow on top. The wrapping paper was holographic with bright green and purple stripes. I didn't even need to read the label to know it was from Tony. Inside were a number of outfits, all made from the special, self-healing and size modifying material that Tony and Bruce had developed that would grow and shrink as we did. There were a few normal looking outfits composed of plain T-shirts or dress shirts with slacks. I assumed these had been picked out by Pepper. Along with these were a few huge graphic T-shirts with various Kermit the Frog quotes emblazoned on the front. 

I held one that said "It's not easy being green" and gave Betty a look. She let out a snort of laughter and I found myself grinning despite myself. 

Another box from Tony contained several pieces of tech that I didn't really recognize. There was a card inside explaining them. Apparently, the small metal disc about the size of a dime was a device inspired by Aldrich Killian's tech and could provide a live feed of brain activity, which would then be sent to and projected by a small, flying projection unit which was approximately the size of a softball. However, instead of just showing a visual representation of brain activity, Tony had modified it to allow our current non-controlling personality to have a visual and audio representation of themselves controlled in real time so that we both could be "present" at the same time, given, of course that we were both awake and the thing was on. 

The card went on to explain that "Bruce totally didn't help with this at all." and that "I'm totally not just saying that because he told me not to tell you because he's modest or whatever reasons you two have for keeping secrets from each other. How does that work, by the way?"

Clint had gotten me the movie "Wreck-It-Ralph" and a pair of ridiculous purple shorts. No doubt a jab at the fact that, in the development phase of creating the stretch fabric, Bruce and Tony had only been able to make one color, which happened to be an obnoxious purple color. For over two months, Bruce and I had worn almost exclusively pants in this horrendous shade. A fact that we would apparently never live down. 

Natasha got me a book of hand-to-hand fighting techniques. She had been teaching both Bruce and I how to fight recently. It had seemed natural to me that Bruce would want to learn self defense, as puny as he was, for times when the situation called for discretion but I had been against learning myself. My ability to fight(or perhaps, more accurately, my ability to defeat opponents in combat) has always been a point of...let's call it "pride" for me and it's never been easy for me to accept help or instruction. Eventually (after a few rounds of her exploiting my top heaviness and tripping me onto my face) I relented. Now I was glad I did. Learning how to work with my size and strength more effectively made me feel more in control, even outside of battle. The world was still fragile, but I felt more confidant that I could interact with it without breaking it.

Thor's gift was an Asgardian axe. It was finely made but I knew I would never use it. Weapons weren't really my style. I appreciated the gesture though. Steve's gift was a beautiful drawing. It was of a scene that had occurred a few months ago when a small girl had offered me a flower after saving her life. I blushed again. I had tried to be very aloof then and not show that the action meant anything to me but Steve was an observant guy. I still had that flower, pressed in a book upstairs, but that was a secret that not even Bruce knew about. Normally I don't like pictures of myself, since I'm not exactly my favorite person, but I decided that this would be an exception to the rule.

The last gift(besides Bruce's mysterious package) was a small box labeled "With Love, From Betty". I smirked.

"Saved the best for last, huh?" I asked teasingly. "Do I want to know what's in here?"

I expected Betty to make a quip back at me but she just looked at me intensely. 

"I hope so." she said. 

My grin faded. I carefully tore away the wrapping paper and opened the box within. It was filled with white tissue paper, which encased whatever the gift was.

"It took a bit of searching for..." Betty prefaced lightly. She sounded concerned and unsure. 

I gently removed the tissue paper to reveal a small picture frame. The frame was silver, simple but elegant. The person in the picture was a young woman. For a moment, I didn't recognize her.

Suddenly the face snapped into focus and my heart clenched. It was Bruce's mother.

 _My_ mother.

It was an old picture of her, most likely of before she got married. She was wearing a light floral dress and smiling at the camera. The smile seemed to reach her eyes, as I never remember it doing in the time that I knew her. She seemed...happy.

I stiffened and my hands began to shake as flashbacks of screaming and blood flashed in my mind's eye. I put the frame down so as not to accidentally break it. A single tear that I couldn't fight escaped my eye.

Betty clutched my arm, looking distraught.

"Oh, I knew this was a bad idea! I never should have done this to you. I'm so sorry. How could I be so st--"

I cut her off, pulling her into a close embrace.

"Thank you."I said. It was all I could think to say. 

I held her like that for a moment, my eyes closed, when she let out a small squeak. Immediately, I dropped her, cursing myself for my temporary lapse in my normally careful control.

"I-I'm sorry." I stammered. "Are you--?"

"Fine!" Betty huffed, still catching her breath. "I'm fine." she said again. "I'm just glad you--er--I mean, that it's--It's ok, then?" she gestured to the photo.

"It's..." _Perfect? Wonderful? Thoughtful? Heartbreaking?_ "...Yes. It's... Thank you, Betty."

She motioned for me to lean down and kissed me. 

"Happy Birthday, Hulk." she said. I didn't try to correct her this time.

After we cleaned up the table, we watched "Wreck-It-Ralph". Bruce and Betty had seen it before but, to be honest, I slept through that date night. Movies had always been a bit boring for me but I watched it this time and actually paid attention. I could relate pretty strongly to the characters of Ralph and Vanellope and I wondered if Hawkeye factored that into his decision to get it for me. More likely he just thought my basic resemblance to Ralph was funny, but sometimes he could be surprisingly insightful. I shifted uncomfortably at the "I don't build things, I just break them." part but, if Betty noticed, she didn't mention it. I started drifting off near the end. 

It struck me as amazing, in that moment, as it often did, how much things had changed between Bruce and I. The simple fact that I could be falling asleep and be at no risk of changing to Bruce was astonishing in and of itself. I could even sleep in my own form if I wanted to, though I usually let Bruce take over for that, if for no other reason than that he took up less space in the bed. Drowsiness no longer held a sense of dread or panic. There was no more desperate scramble to elevate my heart rate, to stay in control or to submit to that blackness, never certain if I would ever return. Now, I could sit here, half asleep, without any worry at all. It felt good.

Betty yawned and I snapped out of my thoughts to notice that the movie had ended. Betty turned off the T.V. and put the DVD back in its case. 

She yawned again and said "Well, I think it's about bedtime." She stretched then headed for the stairs.

I went to follow her but she stopped me.

"Ah-ah." she said. "I believe that you still have one more gift to open." She gave me a sly smile and went up the stairs.

I'd completely forgotten about the last box and its mysterious contents, whatever they may be. I was curious as to what was inside but mostly I was just tired and ready to go to bed. I decided to get this over with quickly.

Bruce's gift was about the size of a briefcase and was wrapped in a plain blue paper with no bow or ribbon. The tag on top read "From Bruce to Hulk: To be opened later (I mean it)". I rolled my eyes and tore away the paper. The underlying box was a plain cardboard box, closed with tape. It was fairly light (though I might not be the best judge) so I doubted it was more machinery. I pulled the tape off and opened the box. Inside were small stacks of paper, a plastic card, and a small book. I picked up the card to inspect it closer. It had a picture of my face on one side. I recognized the picture as one Betty had snapped of me a few weeks ago. Also on the card was my name, "Hulk", and things like my eye and hair color, "green" and "green".

Suddenly I recognized what this hunk of plastic was. It was an I.D. card. I had a similar one for my status as an Avenger, but this wasn't affiliated with The Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D, or Tony Stark. It was just a US I.D. I put the card down and looked through the rest of the contents of the box. It included a passport, a modified version of a birth certificate (with "Culver University. Willowdale, VA" as the Place of Birth) ,and various other legal papers. 

I was confused. These all seemed unnecessary. We'd never run into a problem with legal papers before. I was still technically Bruce, so all of his legal paperwork and identification worked for me. Why go through all this trouble? I looked in the box again for some kind of explanation and found a card. Inside there was, written in Bruce's handwriting:

"Hulk,  
It took a few favors called in to Nick Fury, more than a few bribes by Tony Stark, and some charm and persuasion by Captain America himself but we managed to acquire all the legal paperwork to declare you an official citizen of the United States. They wouldn't let me stretch it to an official human being. You know how strict the government had been with regulation since the surge in the meta-human population. Sorry. I'll keep trying.  
I want you to know that these papers are just legality. These don't make you a person. You already were. You always have been. I know I've been a real idiot over the years and I'm sorry for everything I've put you through but I swear I'll do whatever I can to make it up to you.

I'm sorry to have sprung this on you like this without warning, but I knew you'd never would have allowed it if you knew and I'm sorry for how uncomfortable you must have felt. I'm sure you probably thought this was a bad joke at first but believe me when I say that I have never been more serious than when I say today is a day worth celebrating.

Thank you.  
For everything,  
Bruce"

I was taken aback. Bruce was never so open with his emotions, certainly not to me. And for him to go through all this trouble... I looked at the documents again. A citizen. These papers confirmed that I was a person. My own person, who had rights and freedoms. That I existed.

I noticed then that Bruce was watching me. He'd been giving me my privacy for the whole evening, but must have woken up to see my reaction to his gift. I could feel his anxious uncertainty. 

I went back to the table where the other gifts were laid and picked up Tony's. I fumbled the small transmission disk in my hand for a moment, contemplating its mechanisms before attaching it behind my ear. With a small shock, like static electricity, it adhered and activated. The accompanying projection device whirred to life. After a few moments of buzzing in the box, the projector took flight, hovering about seven feet from the ground. A light on the front blinked a few times, then stabilized into a steady projection of Bruce, who looked sheepish. The projection was a monochromatic gold color and was not very highly detailed. I immediately noticed an odd sensation. In what can only be described as my mind's eye, was a secondary vision. If I focused on it, I could look out the "eye" of the projector and back at myself. It was unnerving. 

We stood there in silence for a moment. I was the one to break the silence.

"Hey." I said, not meeting his eye. God, that sounded stupid. I didn't really know what to say.

"Hey." he said back with a small smile. 

"So...that was something with Betty's gift. You took a chance there. I could have reacted a lot worse than I did."

Bruce's smile grew. "I trust you." he said. After a moment, he continued with "Also I have no idea what you're talking about. Betty didn't tell me what it was. Was it bad?"

"It was a picture of your--" I hesitated. "Of mom."

Bruce's face fell for a moment. "Oh. Did you...? Are you...?"

I put up a hand "Fine." I assured.

"Ah .Good." he said, looking at his feet.

There was another awkward pause.

"Am I supposed to be getting the camera feedback thing?" I asked.

"Oh!" he let out a sheepish laugh. " You're getting that too? The camera was supposed to be so whichever of us was using it could see from the perspective of our projection. Didn't really anticipate the feedback to the one in control. This is the first real life test, of course. I'll have to tamper with it--" he caught is mistake a second too late. "--I mean, _Tony_ will have to tamper with it."

"It's fine." I said "Tony already told me you helped build it. I wager you did more than help."

Bruce rolled his eyes. "Naturally he would. I felt like putting my name on this would make it seem too much like giving a gift to myself, since I'll be using it too."

"Thank you." I said.

"Hey, like I said it's basically a gift for me too so--"

"No. I meant..." I ran my hand through my hair, averting my eyes again "...Thank you."

I couldn't see the projection's face, but I could feel Bruce's understanding and joy.

"Happy Birthday." he said.

"Yeah." I said, my voice becoming hoarse. I exhaled deeply and let myself shrink.

When our form settled back into my puny body, I felt my eyes sting. I wiped away a tear and smiled.

There was a creak on the stairs behind me. I turned to see Betty at the foot of the stairs. 

"I heard you talking. Guess the machine works, huh Bruce?" She said. She looked at my reddened eyes with concern. "Are you alright?"

"I've never been better."


End file.
